Norwich City Women overcame a stern Cambridge City side in difficult conditions on Wednesday, April 5, thanks to a superb strike by Kathryn Stanley to earn a 1-0 win.
Despite some extensive pampering to the recently weather-beaten pitch, it didn’t take long after kick-off for the heavens to open in Ely and undo the hard work of the grounds people. This made for a challenging affair for both sides as they took time to acclimatise to the conditions in the opening stages of the game.
The first chance of the game emerged for Norwich, as a bouncing ball was kneed back to the Cambridge keeper, Sarah Hudson and deemed a back-pass by the referee. Though the indirect free-kick could only lead to a foul and another free-kick, the follow-up was denied by the woodwork, to the despair of Rebecca Russell.
The visitors enjoyed space down both flanks, with Ella Gambell continuing her purple patch of form with a series of dribbles, bursts of pace and attempts on goal. But it was down the left where Norwich would find their breakthrough.
Alice Parker played Stanley into space down the left, who dribbled inside onto her stronger right foot and shaped a lovely curling effort into the bottom-right corner to open the scoring.
Approaching the half-hour mark, Russell would continue to try her luck from range. Her first effort was hit from all of 30 yards out and forced Hudson into a fine save after it bounced awkwardly in front of the Cambridge keeper. Minutes later, Hudson would deny her again with a superb fingertip save to push the ball onto the post, to the despair of Russell.
On the other end of the pitch, Bryony Williams had little to do in the first half, catching the occasional long-range attempt with relative ease.
The second half saw much of the same, with Sarah Hudson the stand-out performer for the hosts, thwarting Norwich on a number of occasions. Ceri Flye and Liv Cook both went close early in the second half but were denied by a block and a fine save respectively.
The closing half an hour had little else to offer in terms of clear-cut chances, with the greatest highlight coming in the 72nd minute, as club captain Millie Daviss returned to action for the first time in 192 days, to the delight of the players, bench and travelling fans alike.
A couple of late cards for City youngsters, Gambell and Eloise Morran would ultimately draw a close to what could only be described as a gritty Norwich City Women's performance in some testing conditions in Ely.
Cambridge City: Hudson, Fitzpatrick, Struthers, Pryke, Gerken, Steele, Stephenson, Marson, Richards, Sparrow, Hubbard
Subs: Davies, Sarter, Billing, Anderson, Payne
Norwich: Williams, Parker, Russell, Stanley, Harper (George 85), Symonds, Gambell, Cook (Daviss 72), Flye, Croft, Morran
Subs not used: Ward, Booker, Williams
HT: 0-1
FT: 0-1
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